Well I'm just saying, I'll probably be avoiding Seagate drives for now. You have to wonder, if they are able to sell the drives at the lowest price (compared to other brands), something is being cut back somewhere.

I think a 7200.12 500GB might be on it's way out too. It has some errors in SMART but nothing major yet to trigger any alarms.

I've heard of minor firmware issues with earlier releases of the Barracuda 7200.12's and Momentus XT's.

Mostly performance/acoustics related issues, but firmware updates usually fix them. Seagate even recommends you regularly check for firmware updates. Not sure I'd go back to one though, not with the Samsung's and Hitachi's coming at similarly low price points.

I've heard of minor firmware issues with earlier releases of the Barracuda 7200.12's and Momentus XT's.

Mostly performance/acoustics related issues, but firmware updates usually fix them. Seagate even recommends you regularly check for firmware updates. Not sure I'd go back to one though, not with the Samsung's and Hitachi's coming at similarly low price points.